Half a Season, Half a Team (Warriors 83, 76ers 105)

At the core of Friday night’s 83-105 loss to the tough and deep Philadelphia Sixers was a classic Warriors conundrum, featuring the team’s patented blend of poor decisions and bad luck. Mark Jackson continues to start and give regular minutes to Andris Biedrins — the team’s least productive player. The Warriors lost contact with the Sixers early in the third quarter largely because Biedrins was a ghost, allowing Philly easy access to the basket and the glass. Jackson finally pulled Biedrins in favor of Ekpe Udoh — the heart of what little defense the Warriors are able to play — only to see Udoh go down a few minutes later to what is developing into a chronically sensitive knee. Unwilling to return to Biedrins and unable to field Udoh, the team had to go small and got clobbered, A 10-point deficit at the point of Udoh’s injury quickly swelled to above 20, and the remainder of the fourth quarter was notable only for Jim Barnett’s story about once having to play in someone else’s sweat-soaked jersey on the back-end of a basketball double-header in the middle of a football-configured Houston Astrodome.

All the talk about the Warriors’ offense struggling shouldn’t drown out the fact that this was a fairly typical Sixers shut-down performance. The Warriors shot 40.2% compared to the average 41.5% for Philly opponents. So while Stephen Curry’s absence no doubt gives the Warriors fewer scoring options, and therefore makes defending them easier, it’s not as if the Warriors lost this game just because they had an unlucky shooting night. Doug Collins is an outstanding defensive coach and had no problem tweaking his sets to cool off an initially hot Monta Ellis. After going 6-8 in the first quarter, Ellis went 4-14 the rest of the way. The Warriors resorted to their old bad habits for the most part — quick no-pass jumpers and ball-pounding isolation — rather than looking for ways to get other guys easy looks at the basket. The rest of the team didn’t shoot well, but with Ellis and Lee dominating most of the early touches, it’s not surprising that they’d struggle to get things going later in the game.

But what made this loss particularly hard to take was the jarring shift in energy and physicality between the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters. The Warriors battled through the second quarter, holding the Sixers to 9 points in the final 6 minutes. The Warriors then gave up 13 in the first 4:30 of the third quarter. On the offensive end, playing two non-scorers (Biedrins and McGuire) at the same time essentially guaranteed that Ellis and Lee would dominate the offense (they took 5 of the 6 shots during that period). The logic of giving Biedrins early minutes in the first and third quarters to keep his confidence up has long been suspect. I’m not sure how playing poorly and disappearing for the remainder of the game is supposed to be a confidence boost, and the strategy certainly hasn’t paid off over the season’s first 33 games. But the failure of Biedrins’ early third quarter minutes Friday went beyond just being a ponderous coaching decision — the gaping void he created in the Warriors’ line-up was the turning point in the game. The Warriors never recovered from the momentum shift.

The most frustrating part of Biedrins’ disastrous minutes on Friday is that the team may actually have to give him more run with Udoh potentially out with a knee injury. The Udoh/McGuire tandem had become viable these past few games because Udoh was starting to develop a consistent offensive game. The team could play McGuire solely for rebounding and defense in the same five with Udoh because Udoh demanded at least some defensive attention. The Biedrins/McGuire match-up doesn’t provide the same balance since it allows teams to consistently double Ellis and Lee with no adverse consequences. The winning formulate that looked so impressive in Atlanta was a delicate balance of a defender covering for scorers at one end (McGuire), scorers making up for defenders at the other (Ellis, Lee) and a few two-way players that can give you a fair amount of both (Rush, Udoh). Biedrins throws off that balance because he’s not scoring, defending or rebounding. He’s just taking up minutes that someone else could be using to help the team.

The struggle Mark Jackson has faced finding a line-up that can both score and defend drives home that this is still a roster of mismatched parts. While Curry’s return will help the offense improve, it’ll mean a cut in minutes again for McGuire, negatively impacting the defense. The Warriors are a half-stepped removed from the no-defense days of Nelson’s tenure, in the sense that they actually have a few players capable of defending on the roster. But they still haven’t overhauled the roster to the point where offense and defense can be given equal billing. On Friday, the Warriors — as they often find themselves — were stuck in limbo. They didn’t have enough scorers on the court to make an offensive run and, with Udoh on the bench or injured, they didn’t have enough defenders to stop the Sixers from having their way. You’d like to think that if these gears grind together long enough, something has to give. But it hasn’t yet, and it only has 13 more days to happen in the 2011-12 season.

Adam Lauridsen

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I think the next move should be taking DW out of the starting line-up.

Montasbiggestfan

I STILL don’t understand how the WarrIors have a FAILED former GM/coach handling their post game analysis. How is that possible!?

zgoddbap

As dumb as this sounds, I think at this point I would actually do a trade just to do a trade. Need something new to watch. This rerun of a team has no fun or excitement in it.

zgoddbap

Montasbiggestfan, @ 152,
I don’t understand either. It’s kinda funny but not really.
Just shows and proves that this organization is flawed top to bottom.

JMJ

Montasbiggestfan,

Not every one that gets in your face is Truth Drink or a troll. Your and your cliques are nothing but a bunch of conceited sycophants.

Get a life.

Tarheel Warrior

So much for +/-

Biedrins only Warrior with a positive +/-.
How did that happen? 0 pts. 1, rbs, 0 blks, and missed 2 of 2 FTs.

Tarheel Warrior

Meanwhile, our other center had 3 RBs in 32 minutes.
We were out-rebounded by 10. Draw conclusions.

Tarheel Warrior

The Saint is holy and will be with us forever. Amen.

And Monta got his usual 8-22.

…scotch

Fire Mark Jackson…bring back Don Nelson!!!

OK that might be a little radical, but how much more of this vomit inducing walk-it-up-half-court-offense do we have to watch??? Or do you like 28 point halves when the perimeter game isn’t working?

Before the season started, both Malone & Jackson promised the Warriors were still going to be a running team & the emphasis on defense would only enhance the running game.

And it’s not poor rebounding, even on long rebounds or good running rebounds they hold it & let everyone go by before they f’nnng walk it up!!!

Watching the Bull-76er game, they had a mic on Collins, “It’s to hard to run half court sets every play we have to get something going in the open court”!!! He was imploring them to run, because half court wasn’t getting it.

Jackson spent to much time around Jeff Van Gundy. They need to run dammit!! Get your hands out of your pockets & start pushing them to go!!!!

The Oracle

I think what Lin has done in what is really his first stretch of games ever as a starter is amazing.

You can’t compare him to established PG’s and what they bring to the court. Compare him to what other young PG’s did in their 1st years and I think he stacks up pretty well.

Speculator

St. Jean is awful. The few times they had Nate Thurmond do the analysis, he was much better.

The Oracle

“Fire Mark Jackson…bring back Don Nelson!!!”

Now you’ve gone way too far.

Prefer MJ to Nelson any day.

The Oracle

I don’t mind St. Jean. Seems like a nice guy. OK analysis. What’s the beef?

high dribble dribble

Deron Williams 21 for 21 from the line tonight
AB in the last 3 years: 15 for 63

The City

Nelson would have still have Klay Thompson in his dog house at this point in the season.

Let’s not venture into silly land in pining for Nelson.

Besides, I look at this season at Jackson’s season to learn. The season is not going anywhere anyway.

socalwarrior

Another game in another lost season

Lee was the only player on the team to shoot over 50%.

Such a rudderless ship.

…scotch

Come on O & City…

Before this runs off the rails…the Nellie thing was intended as tongue-n-cheek to emphasize how ridiculous the Warriors offense has become & how they are completely forsaking their life blood…the running game!

Cedric

Be careful what you ask for. Nelson was the man. Warriors dribble to much. Not enough passing. The wrong people handling the rock. There are shooters, dribblers finishers; the warrior coaches do not coach to players strengths. The coaches job is to bring out the best in players. If they are not doing that, play will look very bad

lime

The Warriors may be horrible, but they have the best TV play by play guy in Fitzgerald, bar none!

dr_john

Fitz is a toady and should never venture into analysis without a disclaimer ticker running across the bottom of the screen.

Still, I have to say, the other night when Chris Mullin was doing the national broadcast, I had to run back to Fitz/Barnett.

Even when they did an entire quarter of not calling the game (Barnett kept looking at the play and thought he should be commenting) and chatting for the 100 pt. occasion, they were less bad than Mullin.

Congratulations HOF—standards going down. Must have the hype.

songwriter123

Why does AB start? Because, if he is going to play at all, starting the 1st quarter is where he can do the least damage in terms of the ultimate outcome of the game.

sartre

@171, why is that exactly? Points count at the start too and the opposition’s starters are generally their best players and presumably most likely to exploit weaknesses.

i

Look get a grip guys you can’t have it both ways ..this is the way the team has to play the rest of the season …remember a 1-7 draft pick is what we are (not) playing for.. I for one hope they loose all the rest this season was going no where anyway… Mjax is playing the right guys to get us that pick so don’t bag on him…give him a real team and I bet he does something with it……..ah you reading this Mr Lacob???? Please be a fan and let the professionals do their job. You will not have to wait those ten year if you do. Just let Mr West and Mr. Myres do their jobs and fire your brown nose

dr_john

The reasons the Knicks lost today are many, but mostly it took them too long to figure how to attack the Celtics high-post pressure, and they got goofy with the ball, and missed some good shots too.

In the end game, Lin was very good. He converted a foul shot, then made up for a turnover by getting it back and scoring. Then he hit a three. Then he and Shumpert assisted on a string of three straight Anthony baskets.

The Knicks had a three point lead. Then they did the stupid thing. They let Pierce get off a three—to tie. Still, they had the last shot to win. Anthony missed. So OT.

If Landry Fields had not stunk, or Chandler had a healthy left wrist, or JR Smith could hit the ocean, or Amare’ could play something other than Statue of Liberty defense, they win. It was a good game, raw at times, some very nice Boston play by Bass, Pierce, and of course—Rondo.

Lin is very like a rookie Rondo, with a better shot. Let the season play out, and not judge on every single game.

The Knicks depth and chemistry could be pretty impressive by the end of the season, given reasonable health. Harrelson’s return to the post.

Think the Warriors could have used Leonard or Shumpert? Nah, I guess not. Not “our” type.

don’t agree on Lin and Curry. Would love to see a healthy Curry with Amare, Anthony and Chandler. Put Lin on this Ws team with Monta superstar and see what happens. That’s ok. It will all come out in the wash, and do not forget that Curry had among the top 10 rookie years of a PG in NBA history (look it up). I am very impressed with what Lin has accomplished, I just do not think, based on watching him play, that he is exceptionally talented. Happy to be proven wrong.

@ Tarheel, never said Lin sucks. He sucked today and against Miami, seeming overwhelmed in both games, and was destroyed by Rondo. He had a great run of games, but citing the Flip Murray analogy one more time, many players have had a great run of games. Hell, Curry has 4 of the top 50 games in the NBA this season according to ESPN’s matrix, and no one is singing his praises. Let’s see how it all plays out. I believe most decent point guards would thrive with Amare, Anthony and Chandler…hell, playing with just Lebron turned Mo Williams into a 1 year all-star. Let’s see how it plays out is all I am saying.

We do agree on Rondo. Simply brilliant. THAT is how you play PG…too bad he has no shot, he would be epically unstoppable.

coltraning

BTW, this unbelievably woeful run of offense in the games Curry has been out are like a freakin’ root canal. Great that we are holding teams to the mid-80s sometimes, but absent any kind of credible PG, we can’t even break 80 against the freakin’ raptors…oh, the horror…murmured Kurtz